S&OP Maturity Series, part 4 of 5

Those of you who have been following this series would be familiar with Andrew, who has been playing an integral role in the company’s success:

• Securing the profitable ASDF account
• Using forecasting solutions to optimize plans for the future
• Leveraging on knowledge gained through Q Co.’s end-to-end supply chain visibility to renegotiate supplier contracts for improved cost savings

Calculating the right move

We rejoin Andrew at Q Co., where he has been promoted to country manager. Q Co. has grown by leaps and bounds, and with this growth comes increased pressure to meet higher targets. The stakes have gone up, and the risks are very significant – making the right decisions is of utmost importance.

Working with Shelly, the global supply chain director, they establish a consensus demand forecast with input from lead customers on their projected demand (or cancellation) of orders.

Feedback from sales reps around the world helps them identify underperforming products to phase out so that resources can be freed up and redirected to maximize the profits of products with higher demand and revenue. This also allows new products to be introduced, with the support of input from marketing. Third party data covering macroeconomic indicators is used to further improve this collaborative forecasting.

Moving up the value chain

The groundwork has been set for Q Co. to introduce a new range of higher specs products, and this time the company is looking at going for simultaneous launches around the world.

How will the company and Andrew ensure the success of this rollout? My upcoming final post in this series will touch on the final steps of the planning process for Q Co., and pull back to reveal a bird’s eye view over the next few years.

Businesses with higher forecasting accuracy see better performance in inventory and experience higher return on assets. Find out the attributes and best practices of leaders in demand planning. Also watch this video on taking your S&OP process to the next level, presented by S&OP experts Bryan Ball and John Sookias.